74 | Spanish Banknotes

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1000 Pesetas. July 18, 1937. Not issued, with the original Cartevalori numbering and stamp "UNUSED". (Edifil: NE44, Pick: 106E). Extremely rare, very few known copies, staple points and repaired, without a doubt one of the rarest banknotes in the Spanish billet. Good Very Fine. PMG25 encapsulation (repaired, staple holes).

To talk about the failed 1937 issue of Cartevalori is to contemplate a magnetic story of mysteries, thefts, espionage and strange secret operations on the part of the printing press, the Bank of Spain and, of course, those who robbed the warehouses to put some into circulation. of those notes even before the Bank thought about it. And there are stories and specimens that have such a pedigree that it is impossible to get away from them. This is the case of this ticket.

Once Franco's first broadcast was resolved, that of November 1936, the rebel government set its sights on celebrating the first anniversary of the uprising. To do this, he turned to the unexpected C&C Banconote (the letters C hiding the Jewish surname Coen), an Italian printing company with no experience in the production of banknotes, although it did have experience in other purposes. The order, accepted by a very young Gualtiero Coen (also known as Rino Giori), was signed on August 1, 1937 and was extended on March 7, 1938. The Italian printing press had to manufacture 98 million banknotes of 25, 50, 100 , 500 and 1,000 pesetas in intaglio. But they did not have enough experience or machinery for that printing technique.

Without going into too many details, what happened was that the sample banknotes manufactured were not to the taste of the Board of the Bank of Spain, according to a communication from August 1938, so they were discarded by C&C. However, despite the security of the carabinieri, a 25 peseta bill of that issue appeared in the Bank of Spain branch in Bilbao on October 24, 1938, and a 1,000 peseta bill in Hendaye (France), two days later. after. The one thousand pesetas was the number A0.910.090. Skipping all the details about the discussions and investigations (which can be read in the Encyclopedia of Spanish Notaphilia and Scripophilia, Volume 4, Volume II), the fact is that on November 25 another suspicious bill appeared in the Bank of Spain agency in Tetuán, from the Spanish Credit Bank: number A0.910.089.

It is precisely this same copy at auction, a unique and exclusive document, whose story is worthy of a movie. We are faced with an authentic copy (manufactured by C&C) and numbered, although theoretically discarded. However, C&C neither crossed it out, as was its usual procedure, nor did it drill and burn it, as requested by the Bank of Spain. The “UNUSED” stamp that shows this copy on the front and back comes from the Bank of Spain after the seizure, so it is in itself another historical element of this copy.

Thus, we can see in this copy the only evidence we know of how the numbering on this very rare banknote was supposed to have originally looked like. Among other things, after the discovery of this same banknote, the Bank of Spain in Burgos decided to proceed with burning the consignment of banknotes that it had already received.

The discussion between the Bank of Spain and C&C escalated in January 1939 and was not settled until 1957.